[Fluxus] google soc project ideas

[Dave Griffiths]

Hi Matt,

On Mon, 2009-03-09 at 12:33 -0400, Matt Jadud wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 8:43 AM, Dave Griffiths <dave at pawfal.org> wrote:
> > I'd also like to go in the other direction at the same time - having a
> > stripped down fluxus that can be easily distributed as binary. I'm
> > thinking it would take the form of a single executable with most things
> > removed - eg no sound processing, ode, midi, etc.
> 
> Hi Dave,
> 
> Having the ability to go from source to installer without any hoops is
> a huge plus for any project. Right now, it is daunting to think about
> using Fluxus with students in any context, because it looks like a lot
> of work to get set up.
> 
> Anything that makes the tool easier to build (for developers) and
> install (for users) is a big win, in my book. I'd love to be able to
> offer a cross-listed course with the art department at my college,
> where we explore algorithmic approaches to digital art, and explore
> the live production of art through tools like Fluxus. If you strip the
> sound processing, you might strip too much of the interesting
> bits---but if there are things that can make it easier for people too
> lazy/busy to install/build everything (but have a lot of Scheme
> experience), that would be awesome, and probably a long-term win.
> 
> Mind you, I haven't sat down and tried to put together a livecoding
> rig on any of our classroom machines. Nor have I asked our admin to
> look into it. So, perhaps this is already possible, and I'm just
> uninformed. (Entirely possible!)
> 
> In other words, I love watching what your tools can be used to
> produce, but need something that is closer to the PLT Scheme tools in
> terms of installation complexity before I dive in. (Or, if you prefer,
> I should be able to "drag-and-drop" and be done with a Fluxus
> install.) If that is already the case, my apologies for suggesting!

This is something I'm quite concerned with, and wondering how it got to
be this way. I'd like more input on measures we can take to simplify
this situation.

On Ubuntu I think the main problem is in fact PLT scheme, as the
standard version always old, and doesn't include the dynamic libraries,
so you need to download and build it from scratch. We could take on
responsibility for the PLT scheme .debs and provide one ourselves I
suppose, but it seems a bit much.

I generally install fluxus by installing all the development versions of
the libs via a package manager, build and install the latest plt scheme
then build and install fluxus.

On mac I think the problem is largely done away with due to Gabor's hard
work packaging it for that platform, but I think it embeds it's own copy
of the whole of PLT.

One thing I might try is seeing how dependant fluxus is to PLT and all
the collects - it should be possible to make it work with just mzscheme.

Going the other way - is it possible to package binaries with planet?

cheers,

dave